Professor Val Lewington trained in Southampton where she was Director of Nuclear Medicine from 1992-2004, when she moved to the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. She was Head of the Radio-isotope Therapy Unit at the Royal Marsden from 2004-2011, where she led the introduction of new radionuclide treatments for neuroendocrine tumours, lymphoma and bone metastases.

Professor Lewington’s main research focus is targeted radionuclide therapy for thyroid cancer, lymphoma, metastatic bone disease and neuroendocrine tumours and the application of functional imaging to assess treatment response. Current research projects include mIBG imaging to predict prognosis in high-risk childhood neuroblastoma, use of PET/CT and dwMRI as response indicators for radionuclide therapy in neuroendocrine malignancy and the development of multimodality treatment combining radionuclide therapy with cytotoxic chemo and biotherapy.

Professor Lewington moved to her current post as Chair of Clinical Therapeutic Medicine at King’s College London in 2011. She is a Consultant in Nuclear Medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Course Director of the MSc program in Nuclear Medicine at King’s College London.

Professor Fanti graduated in medicine from the University of Bologna. He commenced his career in general nuclear medicine in 1990 and then in the PET Unit at the S. Orsola Policlinic Hospital (Bologna), where he was appointed as medical director in 2002. This PET Unit is one of the busiest in Europe (more than 10,000 examinations in 2012) and is known for its use of non-FDG radiopharmaceuticals in clinical and research settings, undertaking approximately 2,000 such studies per year.

Professor Fanti is currently Director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and the PET Unit at S. Orsola Policlinic Hospital and Professor of Diagnostic Imaging at the University of Bologna.

He has published more than 200 articles in peer reviewed international journals, has authored several books and chapters, and has spoken as an invited speaker at more than 120 national and international meetings.

I qualified as a diagnostic radiographer in 1980 and spent just over 4 years in diagnostic practise before being given the opportunity to specialise and complete my post-grad training in Nuclear Medicine. In 1986 I was seconded from the main department and given the role of research radiographer in Nuclear Medicine, and this gave me my first exposure to PET, where I worked on a prototype multi-wire proportional chamber PET scanner (MUP-PET). This provided a fabulous opportunity to work with and learn from PET physicists and clinicians who have gone on to lead some of the key PET centres around the world and thus my passion for this modality was born. In 1994 I went to work as lead radiographer at the UK’s first clinical PET centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital and then in 2001 moved to The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust to manage the Nuclear Medicine department and set up a PET/CT service there. I have a strong interest in education and have been closely involved with the setting up and running of several National and International training courses. I have strong links with the British Nuclear Medicine Society and the Society of Radiographers and currently sit on their Nuclear Medicine Advisory Group.

Professor Koenraad van LaereClinical Head of Nuclear Medicine, Leuven University Hospital, BelgiumTopics: Imaging of Movement Disorders (Movement Disorders Symposium); Quantitation in Neuroimaging; New Horizons in Neuroimaging : are we out of targets?

Koen Van Laere was born in Gent, Belgium in 1965. He obtained an MSc (1987) and PhD in radiation physics on Monte Carlo simulations and dosimetry in 1992 at Gent University, Belgium. Meanwhile he had started medical school and obtained his MD degree in 1997 with magna cum laude and second PhD in medical sciences in 2001 on “Brain perfusion SPECT and PET quantification”, during his specialisation training in nuclear medicine, also in Gent. After board-certification in nuclear medicine in 2002, he moved to the University Hospital Leuven, where he is currently clinical head (department head from 01.10.2012) and part-time professor, and holds a part-time clinical research mandate of the Flemish Fund for Research. His main current research focuses on PET brain imaging in neurodegeneration, drug abuse and drug development. He is principal investigator for several pharmaceutical companies performing PET-based human and preclinical CNS drug development research.He is (co)author of over 170 international peer-reviewed publicationsand reviewer for 15 international journals, and board-member of the European Neuroimaging Committee (European Association of Nuclear Medicine).

Professor Robert HendelDirector of Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit and Outpatient Cardiac Imaging, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami Hospital, USATopics: Appropriateness Criteria in Nuclear Cardiology – are they appropriate?; Non-invasive Cardiac Imaging in the United States: Current and Future Directions; New Horizons in Nuclear Cardiology

Robert C. Hendel, M.D. is currently the Director of Cardiac Imaging at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where he is a Professor of Medicine and Radiology. He also serves as the director of the cardiac care unit at the University of Miami Hospital. Dr. Hendel received his Bachelor of Art’s degree in biological sciences from Northwestern University and then was granted his medical degree, with distinction, from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1983. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Northwestern University and went on to receive fellowship training in cardiovascular disease at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. After specialized training in nuclear cardiology, he returned to Northwestern University in 1990, where he remained for almost 10 years, before he moved to Rush University Medical Center, serving as the Director of the Coronary Care Unit and the Director of Nuclear Cardiology.He has served at the national level as the President of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) and has served on the Executive Council of ASNC for 8 years. Dr Hendel was also President of the Cardiovascular Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine Medicine and in 2003 received the Hermann Blumgardt Award from the Society for outstanding service in nuclear cardiology.. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC), the American Heart Association (FAHA), and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (FASNC). He has also served on the appropriate use criteria task force at American College of Cardiology (ACC) and has pioneered the implementation and evaluation of appropriate use criteria. Dr. Hendel also chairs the ACCF/AHA Task Force on Clinical Data Standards.Dr. Hendel has delivered invited lectureships at the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, Society of Nuclear Medicine, and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology scientific sessions, as well as at national conferences in more than 10 countries. He has also authored more than 150 papers and book chapters and has published two of the leading textbooks in nuclear cardiology. He serves on the editorial board for several journals and is section editor for JACC-Imaging. His areas of research interest have included angiogenesis, attenuation-corrected SPECT imaging, patient risk stratification, and pharmacologic stress testing, and quality/appropriateness in cardiac imaging.

Professor Jason S. Lewis is the Vice Chair of Research, Chief Attending of the Radiochemistry & Imaging Sciences Service and Director of the Radiochemistry & Molecular Imaging Probe Core at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He holds a joint appointment in the Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute. Dr. Lewis did his postdoctoral work with Professors Carolyn J. Anderson and Michael J. Welch at the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). Subsequently he joined the WUSM faculty as an Assistant Professor of Radiology (2003-2008) at which point he joined MSKCC. Dr. Lewis’ research program is a molecular imaging-based program focused on radiopharmaceutical development as well as the study of multimodality (PET, CT & MRI) small- and biomolecule-based agents and their clinical translation. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles as well as numerous book chapters and reviews. His research is supported by grants from the United States Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.

Prof. Enrique Estrada Lobato – Supported by the ANZSNM International Relations Committee Head of Nuclear Medicine and PET, National Cancer Institute, México City, México. Current President, World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and BiologyTopics: PET imaging of infection: will it replace other modalities?; Positron Emission Mammography

Born in México, graduated from the Autonomous University of Guadalajara School of Medicine in 1988. Obtained his postgraduate degree in Nuclear Medicine and Nuclear Oncology from theNationalMedicalCenterinMéxico Cityin 1994.

Currently Head of the Nuclear Medicine and PET Department at the National Cancer Institute in México City, a position he has held since 2000.

His main interest is in the application of nuclear medicine techniques in oncology. Prof. Estrada Lobato has participated in numerous international meetings and research collaborations.

He has been President of the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology since 2010.

Prof Luster is a graduate of the University of Essen (Germany) and completed his nuclear medicine training at University Hospital Würzburg, where he was subsequently employed as a nuclear medicine physician. Since 2008, he has been Professor of Nuclear Medicine at University Hospital Ulm in Germany.

Prof Luster’s principal interests are the management of differentiated thyroid cancer and oncology imaging with PET. He has participated in numerous research studies, and is actively engaged in research regarding the effectiveness, dosimetry and quality of life issues with the use of rhTSH in differentiated thyroid cancer, and the use of sorafenib in medullary thyroid cancer.

Prof Luster is Chairman of the Radionuclide Therapy Committee of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine and of the Working Group on Thyroid Diseases of the German Society for Nuclear Medicine. He is also a member of the German Society for Endocrinology, the Pediatric Thyroid Cancer Guidelines Taskforce of the American Thyroid Association, the Public Health Board of the European Thyroid Association and the Thyroid Study Group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).

Prof Kairemo graduated with a MSc(Eng) degree from Helsinki University of Technology in 1980 before undertaking medical training at the University of Helsinki. He undertook specialist training in Clinical Chemistry, Nuclear Medicine, Health Care Administration and Clinical Pharmacology at Helsinki University Central Hospital and then a post-doctoral research fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center from 1989-93.

Prof Kairemo has held posts as Professor in Clinical Chemistry at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (1998-9), Professor in Nuclear Medicine at Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden (2001-5) and as Head of the Nuclear Medicine Division, Department of Oncology at Helsinki University Central Hospital (2004-9). Since 2009, he has been Chief of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Radiotherapy at the International Comprehensive Cancer Center Docrates, in Helsinki.

Prof Kairemo has also held posts in industry, as Medical Director of Cancer Targeting Technologies (2001-6), Medical Director of Imanext Ltd (2006-8) and Clinical Director at Advanced Accelerator Applications, a joint French-Italian initiative.

Prof Kairemo has wide experience in the development of tumour-seeking compounds, including monoclonal antibodies, specific phage-display peptides and cytotoxic drugs, and he has coordinated several EU Research Programme proposals, including as the National Coordinator and Management Committee Member for the European Union COST Action Project (BM 0607, Targeted Radionuclide Therapy) from 2007-11.

Prof Kairemo has published more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Recently he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Association of Radiopharmaceutical and Molecular Therapy (WARMTH) and was President of the 7th International Conference on Radiopharmaceutical Therapy held in November 2012 in Finnish Lapland.

Lowenthal Lecture

Professor Richard FoxDept of Physics, University of Western AustraliaTopic: Ionising Radiation: Boon or Burden?

Professor Fox was Head of Department of Medical Physics and Radiation Safety Officer at Royal Perth Hospital for more than 20 years. He is presently an Emeritus Consultant at RPH and an adjunct Professor in the School of Physics at the University of Western Australia. He is a member of the Radiological Council of Western Australia which is the body responsible for radiation safety in the State, Chairman of the X-ray Compliance Testing Committee and Chairman of the Cancer Council’s Medical Radiation and Cancer Working Party.